


Closure

by wizardinblack



Category: Afraid of Monsters & Cry of Fear
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-14
Updated: 2013-05-14
Packaged: 2017-12-11 20:19:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/802809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wizardinblack/pseuds/wizardinblack
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>David and Simon meet for the first time after the accident. Set after both of the game's "good" endings.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Closure

** Closure **

 

**David**

David was almost there. The aches stopped, the cravings subsided, the desire to eat returned, and the sleepless nights no longer tortured him. But there was still one more thing he had to do. Ask for forgiveness.  
He tried going to a church, into a confessional, but even behind the closed door and with the wall separating him and the priest he still couldn’t say the words – I may have killed someone – just thinking them made his stomach turn, even after all the time that had passed.  
The night haunted David over and over. He couldn’t remember much but what he did remember played in his head on repeat like an old broken film.  
He had taken one too many percocet. Popped a few, snorted a couple, and popped some more before getting into the car. It was late so there wasn’t really anyone else on the roads. It also wasn’t David’s first time driving under the influence so the threat of his eyes slipping closed ever so often didn’t phase him. More than once he would suddenly open his eyes and be swerving and he’d chuckle to himself not remembering closing them in the first place.  
The last time it happened though he was forced out of his drug induced unconsciousness by a loud crash and his body suddenly being thrown forward. His chest slammed into the steering wheel and he mentally cursed his shitty car for not deploying the air bag as the wind was knocked out of him.  
“Fuck,” if he wasn’t already hopped up on pain killers that could of actually hurt. Good thing I always come prepared.  
The door wouldn’t open at first and David had to put his full weight into it before it creaked open and he stumbled out. He let out a breath of relieve noticing that there were no other cars around, meaning no one had seen him. He knew he had to get out of there before the cops showed up. They’d take one look at him and know he was high, they’d search his shit, and he’d be arrested in a heartbeat. His plan was to check out the damage of the car, and if it was too fucked to drive he’d leave it, rather than sit around and wait to get busted.  
Then he saw him, a man – no, a kid, probably no older than 20 – was pinned between his car and the wall of the building he had crashed into. He froze and stared at the boy, who seemed to still be conscious despite his body being basically cut in half. He wheezed, hunched over the hood of David’s car, lifting his head up he looked right at David, his eyes dark and narrow, full of pain.  
“Wow,” dumbly David spoke without thinking, “you ok?”  
“What the fuck?!” The boy spat, his voice was harsh as he struggled for air.  
David vaguely registered that the boy was saying something else but his mind was filled with a fog and everything sounded fuzzy, even the growing sirens in the distance. No, no, no. He had to get out of there. David suddenly turned and ran, ran as fast and as far as he could, and he didn’t stop until the sun was beginning to rise and he realized he was half way across town and miles away from home.  
He thought for sure they would find him. That they would be able to track the owner of the car and he would be hunted down and arrested. But weeks past and nothing happened. David continued to live his life.  
The images from the night’s events haunted him. The boys face, his voice, the look in his eyes when he stared David down. The only escape he could get was from the drugs. Diving deeper and deeper into the habit until it consumed him. When he was high it was the only time he didn’t see the boys face behind his closed eyelids. Drug induced sleep became the only sleep, and the constant waves of pleasure through his body numbed the pain from the guilt.  
The distraction didn’t last forever though and soon the nightmares only got worse. The haunting visions happening not only while he slept, not only every time he blinked, but also right in front of him, wide-eyed and in daylight. The hallucinations growing stronger until he started to beg for death, anything but this.  
It wasn’t until he woke up in a hospital bed that he realized death wasn’t the answer. He had died. Overdosed, but he survived. At first he was furious. As the doctor explained how he had flat lined for a whole five minutes before his heart shuddered back to life he could only feel anger. That was his fucking chance, wasn’t it? He could have escaped all of this. He could have finally been free. But as he stared around the white room of the hospital he realized that if even death had rejected him he had no choice but to stay and fight.  
David shocked the doctor by suddenly ripping the IV out of his arm. The doctor lunged forward to fix it but the look in David’s eyes made him freeze.  
“No, Doc, I gotta do this on my own.”  
Six months later and David was clean. He felt like a teen again – his body having an energy he hadn’t felt in years. But he still felt the pang of guilt every now and then. Once I’m clean I’ll deal with that – He kept telling himself but he knew he was only stalling. Now he was clean and now he had to force himself to deal with it. He had to face the demon that was growing in him over the past two years.  
He started at the library. He looked through old newspapers until he found the story – his story. “Teenage Boy left handicapped in Hit and Run.” David breathed a sigh of relieve. He hadn’t died. Simon it said his name was, and he was eighteen years old. That meant he was twenty now. David wrote down the boy’s full name in the notebook he brought with him for just this reason. Simon Henriksson. Then, David sat down at one of the computers provided by the library and searched the boy’s name. More news articles surfaced. First he found more about the accident. “Paralyzed from the waist down.” David once again felt the pang of guilt knowing the boy’s life had been ruined even if he hadn’t ended it. As he scrolled down the screen he only felt worse. “Two Police Officers Shot.” How did this relate? David felt sick as he read on. His fault. All his fault. When he read that he boy was living in a mental hospital – permanently – he knew that he’d have to visit. He sure as hell didn’t want to, but he had to.

 

**Simon**

Two years had passed since the accident. The Black Day. They let Simon be alone now. It took a while, a full year, before they stopped following him around everywhere. Now he could roll himself outside under his favorite tree in the courtyard and sit by himself in silence. Sometimes he wrote, but not so much any more, now that his book was finished. He tried writing again but it hurt to continue and it hurt even more to start something new, even though he wasn’t entirely sure why. Today he sat under the tree with his eyes closed, relaxed in his wheelchair, and listened to the wind rustle in the leaves. Simon heard footsteps approaching him and before even opening his eyes he knew who it was.  
“Purnell,” he said as the footsteps stopped in front of him, not bothering to open his eyes.  
“Simon,” the doctor began, he sounded distracted, “I have a proposition for you.”  
Simon opened his eyes at that and looked at the doctor encouraging him to continue without saying anything.  
“There is a man who wants to meet you, but he can’t visit without your approval first,” he paused but didn’t wait for a response, “Personally, I think it would be good for you to meet him. It could offer you some sort of…closure.”  
Simon cleared his throat and looked seriously up at the doctor, his eyes just as dark as they always were ever since that day, “what do you mean?”  
“His name is David. He is the man that hit you.”  
Simon’s hands grabbed the arms of his wheelchair so tightly his knuckles turned white. He breathed harshly out of his nose.  
“Simon – hear me out,” Purnell began.  
“No,” the handicapped man cut him off, “absolutely not,” Simon jerked his arm away when Purnell attempted to reach out to him.  
“Please, Simon, consider it. You’ve improved so much but I feel as if you’ve hit a brick wall,” he awkwardly cleared his throat as Simon glared daggers at him for the use of the saying, “I mean, you can only improve so much without facing this head on. And the man wants your forgiveness. He also would like some closure.”  
“Fuck him,” Simon spat, refusing to meet Purnell’s gaze.  
Purnell lightly touched him on the shoulder once more, “think about it Simon, I’ll ask you again tomorrow,” and walked away, leaving Simon alone under the tree to think things over.  
Simon didn’t sleep that night. He tried, but he kept seeing the man’s face, shocked with sunken eyes, staring at him. It frightened him, after all this time he hadn’t remembered the man’s face, but now, it all was coming back to him. The man staring at him as Simon’s body was crushed and he just watched without helping before running away. Simon remembered he had yelled at him, that he would regret what he did and then begging him to come back as he fled the scene. What a load of shit. Simon hadn’t thought about the man in forever, not since he became preoccupied with his own problems.  
Once he discovered he wouldn’t be able to use his legs again and once the feeling of worthlessness had set in he didn’t think much about how it was that man’s fault. All he could think was that he deserved it some how. He was already worthless to begin with, pathetic and shameful, and this just solidified that fact.  
But Purnell wanted him to meet him, and now all he could think about was that face, the face of the man who didn’t help him, the man who ran, the man who left him to live this piece of shit worthless life. And he wanted closure? Fuck that guy. Why should Simon help him?  
Still, he couldn’t help but be curious. Why did this man want closure? Did the incident haunt him the same way it haunted Simon? Simon doubted it seeing as he was the one who was rendered handicapped form the situation. Maybe he should meet with the man just to make him feel worse. Ha, that would teach him.  
When Purnell asked him again the next day Simon said yes, and the doctor was so enthusiastic.  
“Simon, I am so proud of you. You have improved so much. This will help you, I assure you.” Simon couldn’t help but smirk. “This will be the final step.” Those words confused him. Final step to what? Nothing would change who he was now. There were no more steps to take, literally.

 

**Closure**

David crinkled the paper inside his hand. The address written on it had practically smeared away from the sweat on his fingers as he nervously crumpled it and smoothed it out and re-crumpled it over and over again. He bought a new car, and he sat in it parked in front of the huge grey building. To him it looked like a prison, with grey brick walls that reached out in a “U” shape and a fence that surrounded the perimeter. He sat in his car crinkling the paper in his hands for a whole twenty minutes and smoked five cigarettes before stepping out. Taking a deep breath he walked up to the main entrance, the doors were locked and a sign posted on them read, “Ring the Bell.” David pushed the round red button and heard a buzz go off. A few minutes later a voice rang out from somewhere above him, “Hello, do you have an appointment?”  
David looked around dumbly for the source of the voice and awkwardly yelled back into space when he didn’t see anything, “Um, yes, yeah they told me to come today at 4? I’m a little late, sorry – ”  
“Name?” The voice didn’t let him finish explaining. It was already 4:30; David came on time but his stupid stalling in the car made him late.  
“Uh, David Leatherhoff, I’m hear to see Simon – ” once again David was cut off by another loud buzz as the doors were unlocked, “ok, thanks…” he muttered to himself as he pushed the doors open.  
When he walked in he was greeted with a long white hallway, white walls and white tiles. To his left there was a desk with a women sitting behind it, she was on the phone but motioned for him to come over.  
“Yes, he is here,” he over heard her say, “ok, great, I’ll tell him. Thanks.” She put down the phone and then looked up at him with a large smile on her face, “You’re David!”  
“Oh, um, yeah,” David stood awkwardly in front of the desk as she stared at him, still smiling, a few moments passed and when he didn’t say anything else she continued.  
“Here, sign in and here’s a name tag, you have to wear it at all times,” she handed him a clipboard for sign in and a sticker that read, “Visitor” and a blank space left for the name. He signed in and scrawled his name on the sticker before sticking it on his chest, next to the “EA 45” logo on his hoodie. Suddenly he was aware that he might be under dressed and felt slightly embarrassed.  
“Dr. Purnell is going to meet you here and then take you to Simon,” the woman began speaking again, “Dr. Purnell is Simon’s personal doctor, they are both very excited to meet you.”  
David couldn’t help but snort. He doubted “excited” was the right word. “Hey kid, must be exciting to meet the person who ruined your life huh?”  
There were a few minutes of awkward silence as David stood and waited for the man to come. The woman behind the counter, whose name was Karen according to her nametag, would look up and smile at him from time to time but mostly kept herself busy with paper work. It felt like a lifetime before David saw the man in a white lab coat walking down the hallway towards him.  
“David,” he smiled and held out his hand, David shook it nervously, “I’m glad you came, we were worried for a minute there.”  
“Yeah I uh – ”  
The doctor chuckled and held up a hand stopping him, “it’s fine. I’m Dr. Purnell. Let’s go. Simon is waiting.”  
David nodded and followed behind the doctor as he led him down the corridor. They took a couple turns, and David couldn’t tell any of the halls apart, until they were outside in a courtyard. David was surprised at how nice it looked. There was a clearing with picnic tables and trees that surrounded it. It stretched out further into a larger field and the trees became more sparse, except for one, far off in the corner where the fence was. David immediately noted the man sitting in a wheelchair under the tree. Simon. There was an empty folding chair in front of him.  
“Simon preferred if you met outside,” Purnell explained without David asking, “this is his favorite spot, it’ll make things easier on him. I hope that’s ok.”  
The doctor noticed David’s horrified expression and quickly continued, placing a hand on his shoulder to sooth him, “don’t worry. Simon is perfectly stable. He is just nervous, just like you. This spot seems to relax him.”  
David gulped and nodded. The doctor kept his hand on his shoulder as he guided him across the grass to Simon, letting David stand slightly in front of him. When they approached David saw that Simon’s eyes were closed and his hands were folded in his lap. He looked calm; totally different than the face David had seen haunting his dreams for the past two years. He had grown, looking noticeably older, the five o’clock shadow adding to that fact. He wore a red hoodie and jeans. He looked like a normal twenty year old that you’d probably see wondering around a community college. David briefly wondered if Simon could go to college, if he even wanted to, and if David had robbed him of any of those dreams. His suddenly felt like he was going to be sick.  
“Simon,” the doctor began and Simon still had his eyes closed, “David is here to meet you.” Purnell motioned for David to sit in the empty folding chair that was placed directly in front of Simon. He hesitated before awkwardly sitting down, not taking his eyes off the doctor, being too afraid to look at Simon.  
“Simon,” once again the doctor stated his name, this time more persistently, and Simon slowly opened his eyes, looking squarely at David. David finally looked Simon in the eye for the first time since that night. They looked just as dark, and filled with just as much pain, but they were also filled with something else. The hatred he had seen as the boy yelled, “you’ll regret this” (David remembered now) had subsided and now there was only a calm sadness that lingered there.  
Carefully David reached out his hand as a peace offering, and Simon looked at it for a moment before reaching out his own hand and shaking it.  
“David.”  
“Simon.”  
“Good,” the doctor said cheerfully, “you boys don’t mind if I leave you alone do you? I have some other work I need to take care of.” He didn’t wait for an answer before he pat both of the men on their shoulders with both hands at once and walked briskly away. David noticed Simon’s eyes following him as he left.  
Oh fuck, David was breathing heavy and without noticing he was bouncing his leg up and down at a ridiculous speed. It wasn’t until he saw Simon looking at the twitching leg that he stopped abruptly. Fuck you idiot, he hadn’t even planned what he was going to say to the kid and now here he was face to face with him and it didn’t look like Simon was planning on saying the first word.  
“I’m sorry,” David blurted the words out so fast they merged into one, almost sounding like gibberish. Simon starred up at him and simply glared, waiting. David cleared his throat and spoke slower, “I – I’m sorry. I’m, uh, I’m not sure what else to say honestly.”  
Simon’s mind had been going a mile a minute when David’s voice brought him back to reality. When Purnell had brought the man over he was beginning to rethink meeting him. He wasn’t sure what to say or what to expect this man to say to him. And Purnell had left them alone, as if they were just going to have a little chitchat like old friends or something. It wasn’t until David was sitting directly in front of him that Simon realized he had a ton of questions for him. Mostly the word “why” rang in his head over and over again.  
As Simon studied his face he recalled the night of the accident. He looked pretty much just as he remembered, there was a little more color to his face, but that could of just been the time of the day, there was a little scar on his check under his eye he hadn’t noticed before, and he had a slight beard.  
Simon sighed deeply.  
“You know,” he began, speaking slowly, “I blamed myself for this,” he chuckled lightly to himself, “I had convinced myself I deserved it.”  
David watched closely as he talked, his brow furrowed in confusion. Simon continued.  
“I felt worthless all the time. Before the accident,” he was speaking slowly and wouldn’t look at David, “and now,” he gestured to his legs, “I am worthless. Isn’t that ironic?” He laughed again and then finally looked at David. David saw his eyes were glazed over.  
Not knowing what to say David just stared at him dumbly. After a few moments Simon continued again.  
“I know better than to think that now.” He looked down at his hands folded in his lap. David stared at the top of his head at his dark hair as it fell in front of his face. His voice was so sad it broke David’s heart as it pounded rabidly in his chest.  
“I didn’t forget,” David spoke without thinking, “I know I ran, but, I – I didn’t forget. I thought about it all the time,” he felt his own tears prick at his eyes, but quickly blinked them away.  
Simon lifted his head to look at him as he kept talking, David didn’t even register what he was saying he just began to speak and everything came out, “I was fucked up. I was a grimy, low-life, piece of shit druggie,” he also laughed at his misfortune, “but when – when it happened,” he didn’t want to say the words, “I got worse. The guilt. Man, I thought I killed you.” He laughed again, gesturing to Simon to show his relief that his body was before him.  
“You did,” His smile was slapped off his face at Simon’s words. He starred dumbly as Simon’s intense gaze trapped his eyes, “I might as well of died that day.”  
They starred at each other for a while, the intensity of Simon’s gaze never faltering, and David’s brow furrowed in sadness and confusion.  
David broke the stare first; looking down at his shoes, and spoke softly, “I felt the same way.”  
When he looked back up at Simon he was still staring at him with the same concentration, he quickly looked away again and continued to speak, “I wasn’t the same after that. I know you must hate me. Hate me talking like this. I know this affected you more than any way it affected me, but, I – I, uh, well, it changed me. It saved me even.”  
He paused and finally looked back at Simon, “You – you told me I would regret what I did. And you were right. I regretted every moment, and I still do.”  
Simon didn’t say anything and let David speak. He was answering all the questions he had anyway, and he was grateful the man was making it easy for him, so he wouldn’t have to actually ask.  
“I saw your face everywhere. Every time I closed my eyes, every time I slept, every random person walking down the street had your fucking face,” David spat, once again looking away from Simon, “I had this one nightmare…you were twisted and deformed, your face was covered in blood…I started to see that version of you a lot. I started getting into more and heavier drugs to escape it, but you still followed me.”  
His leg was bouncing again, a nervous tick Simon noted, he used to do something similar. Now he gripped the arms of his wheelchair tightly as he listened to David’s story, the haunting tale sounding too familiar.  
“I just wanted to get away from it all,” he was laughing again, lightly to himself, as he looked up at the tree over Simon’s head, “there was nothing I wanted to do more than to just die.”  
This time when David looked at him Simon was the one who turned away. He breathed heavily out his nose and frowned.  
“Eventually I got myself fucked up enough that I did die. For about five minutes. I OD’d and woke up in a hospital. I just wanted to fucking die and my stupid ass couldn’t even do that right,” he chuckled again and looked pointedly at Simon, silently urging him to look back at him.  
Simon felt his gaze on him and looked, he could see the tears welling in David’s eyes, and he could feel them in his own as well.  
“Anyway,” David waved his hand in front of him, as if trying to push the emotions away, “I figured, if that didn’t kill me, I might as well try and do something good. So, I got clean.”  
Suddenly, David stood up and rummaged in his pocket. He produced a pin, and held it in front of Simon’s face.  
“See?” Simon looked at the circular object in his hand; it was red and slightly bigger than a quarter. In bold yellow letters it read, “Six Months Sober.”  
David stayed standing as he kept talking, closing his fist over the pin and holding it up to his chest, “I thought it would help – I mean it did help of course – but it wasn’t enough. I had to find you,” he paused and stared down at Simon, “you know, one of the steps is asking for forgiveness…”  
Simon nodded and looked down at his lap. He thought he’d meet this man and be angry with him, he thought he’d make him feel guilty for what he did, he planned on telling him off, or even yelling at him. But, he didn’t feel like doing that anymore. He didn’t even think he could do it. He actually felt bad. When he began talking, saying how it had changed him, he felt bitter, but when he continued he suddenly felt ashamed. This man had gone through so much, because he felt so guilty for what he had done to him. He had actually killed himself over it. That was more than anything anyone had ever done for him.  
It was eerie how similar their struggles were. David wanted to die, and failed in doing so, and so did Simon. Simon wanted to end his own life but in turn had ended two innocent people’s lives instead. They both had ruined people’s lives, and they both suffered for it. They both were haunted by their inner demons, and they both did everything they could to fight them off. And in the end it had saved them.  
Simon looked up at David as the man standing above him placed both his hands on his shoulders. He starred down at him, his eyes wide with guilt, “Simon,” he began with a begging tone in his voice, “I am so, so sorry I did this to you. Please forgive me.”  
Looking up at him, seeing the look in his eyes, and knowing he was genuinely sorry, Simon could only answer:  
“I forgive you.”


End file.
